FINAL.PROJECT.REPORT.2025
2025-04-26
INTRODUCTION
- The data was gathered from:
- National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) – Leading Causes of Death in the U.S.
- The NCHS dataset includes:
- Mortality statistics across various U.S. states over multiple years
- Excludes murder from the listed causes of death
QUESTIONS
- What are the leading causes of death since 2001?
- Which state had the most amount of deaths in the US?
- What was the leading cause of death in California?
- How has the cause of heart disease deaths changed over time?
- How has the cause of cancer deaths changed over time?
- We know the adjusted death rate for the data, but what does the rate look like when we subtract “all causes’?
- What is the death rate by cause and state?
- What is the age-adjusted death rate for heart disease?
Variables in the dataset:
- Year:
Year in which the incident took place. - X113 cause name:
The full, official name of the cause of death classified by the NCHS. - Cause name:
A broader label for the cause of death. - State:
The U.S. state where the data was collected. - Deaths:
The total number of deaths reported for a specific cause of death. - Age-adjusted death rate:
The death rate per 100,000 people, adjusted per age group for fair comparison.
Leading Causes of Death Since 2001
CLRD stands for Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases.
Total Deaths in Each State
Leading Cause of Deaths in California
Changes Throughout the Years
## `summarise()` has grouped output by 'Cause.Name'. You can override using the
## `.groups` argument.
How has the number of heart disease deaths changed over time?
| Year | Total Deaths |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 1,450,384 |
| 2000 | 1,421,520 |
| 2001 | 1,400,284 |
| 2002 | 1,393,894 |
| 2003 | 1,370,178 |
| 2004 | 1,304,972 |
| 2005 | 1,304,182 |
| 2006 | 1,263,272 |
| 2007 | 1,232,134 |
| 2008 | 1,233,656 |
| 2009 | 1,198,826 |
| 2010 | 1,195,378 |
| 2011 | 1,193,154 |
| 2012 | 1,199,422 |
| 2013 | 1,222,210 |
| 2014 | 1,228,696 |
| 2015 | 1,267,684 |
| 2016 | 1,270,520 |
| 2017 | 1,294,914 |
This plot show how Heart Disease has been decreasing throughout time. The United States started bringing in more awareness to Heart Disease and people started reaching out for help. We can see that from 2010 and 2012, we see a dip in deaths, this is due to the Million Hearts being launched by the United States Department of Health. Their main goal was to prevent 1 million heart diseases by 2017. We can see this dip in the plot above. Before 2010, This can be due to people making better choices for themselves, such as not smoking and better eating habits.
How has the number of cancer deaths changed over time?
| Year | Total Deaths |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 1,099,676 |
| 2000 | 1,106,182 |
| 2001 | 1,107,536 |
| 2002 | 1,114,542 |
| 2003 | 1,113,804 |
| 2004 | 1,107,776 |
| 2005 | 1,118,624 |
| 2006 | 1,119,776 |
| 2007 | 1,125,750 |
| 2008 | 1,130,938 |
| 2009 | 1,135,256 |
| 2010 | 1,149,486 |
| 2011 | 1,153,382 |
| 2012 | 1,165,246 |
| 2013 | 1,169,762 |
| 2014 | 1,183,400 |
| 2015 | 1,191,860 |
| 2016 | 1,196,076 |
| 2017 | 1,198,216 |
In this data we can see that the deaths caused by cancer keep increasing throughout the years. We can see that there is a dip in 2004, this is due to some states statistical data not meeting the requirements to be included to the US data. Since this happened, the amount of deaths decreased due to some states not meeting the requirements to input their data.
We know the adjusted death rate for the data, but what does the rate look like when we subtract “all causes’?
| State | Year | Total Deaths | Known Cause Deaths | Unclassified Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 2017 | 53,238 | 39,366 | 13,872 |
| Alaska | 2017 | 4,411 | 3,118 | 1,293 |
| Arizona | 2017 | 57,758 | 42,928 | 14,830 |
| Arkansas | 2017 | 32,588 | 25,233 | 7,355 |
| California | 2017 | 268,189 | 206,761 | 61,428 |
| Colorado | 2017 | 38,063 | 27,626 | 10,437 |
| Connecticut | 2017 | 31,312 | 22,103 | 9,209 |
| Delaware | 2017 | 9,178 | 6,902 | 2,276 |
| District of Columbia | 2017 | 4,965 | 3,581 | 1,384 |
| Florida | 2017 | 203,636 | 152,459 | 51,177 |
This plot represents the total amount of deaths through these diseases,
but also the amount of unexplained deaths. The unexplained deaths can be
due to the data being specifically based on the top 10 deaths in the
United States. The total amount of deaths is from all residents death
certificates that were filed through this time.
What is age adjusted death rate?
Different states or regions have different age structures.
Older populations naturally have higher death rates so comparing raw death rates across states would be misleading.
To make fair comparisons across the states, public health stats use age adjustment instead of uing raw numbers.
What is the death rate by cause and state?
How do the Amount of Deaths and Age Adjusted Death Rate Compare?
A Closer Look Into Heart Disease and Cancer
When we look at this data, we can notice that there has been a change in Heart Disease and Cancer throughout these years. When I searched it up a bit more, it says that there can be changes throughout the years due to better technology. Due to better technology, these diseases are faster to detect. Therefore the age gap between the amount of deaths is closing in. Creating a greater percentage for those who have an older population. While deaths may be high, this can be due to the population increasing over the time.